A new paper of the MIT studies the economic status of the places in Russia where the Jews were murdered and the places where part of the Jewish population survived the war. I dont need a MIT study to observe that Ucraine, which before the Holocaust was one of the more prosperous agricultural and industrial regions in Eastern Europe, is now - anno domine 2010 - a very poor and underdeveloped country. Its GNP per capita is lower than some African countries. If you dont believe it, see the CIA's country profiles. Bielorrusia ibidem. Hungary is in a bit better shape because "only" about 60% of its Jewish population was murdered in Auschwitz, but since then there is a gradual loss of Jews by natural decrease, assimilation and emigration. In one generation more Hungary too will sink to the Romanian/Moldavian/Ucranian level. I'm tempted to write that they fully deserve living at African standards, but I know many decent Hungarians and as in the Biblical story of Sodoma and Gomorrah, even one just person is enough to spare a city. And they are just Hungarians.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Economic consequences of the Holocaust
A new paper of the MIT studies the economic status of the places in Russia where the Jews were murdered and the places where part of the Jewish population survived the war. I dont need a MIT study to observe that Ucraine, which before the Holocaust was one of the more prosperous agricultural and industrial regions in Eastern Europe, is now - anno domine 2010 - a very poor and underdeveloped country. Its GNP per capita is lower than some African countries. If you dont believe it, see the CIA's country profiles. Bielorrusia ibidem. Hungary is in a bit better shape because "only" about 60% of its Jewish population was murdered in Auschwitz, but since then there is a gradual loss of Jews by natural decrease, assimilation and emigration. In one generation more Hungary too will sink to the Romanian/Moldavian/Ucranian level. I'm tempted to write that they fully deserve living at African standards, but I know many decent Hungarians and as in the Biblical story of Sodoma and Gomorrah, even one just person is enough to spare a city. And they are just Hungarians.
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I don't understand how African standards would be their natural state if they score 20+ points higher than the Africans on IQ tests.
I agree that the fault in their poverty lies with the various Eastern European groups, but they have a natural income level that should be far higher than what they are earning now.
Clearly something more is wrong with these countries than just the presence or absence of Jews.
In the case of Ukraine, not only did they lose their entire entrepreneurial class of Jews but between the Soviet occupation and the German occupation and the Soviet re-occupation, many of their best and brightest non-Jews were lost as well, so what you have left are a negatively selected group. Business was defined as speculation, a crime. Kind of like what Obama wants to do with the banks.
K
I deleted "Natural State". It is difficult to understand the current ultralow standard of living of Moldavia, for example. They are certainly no morons.
The wealth of nations, according to La Griffe du Lion, is not just correlated with the average IQ, but with the proportion of the population with an IQ above 106; ie the "Smart Fraction." Further iterations of this work led to the discovery that it is in fact the verbal IQ which is critical, and not just the general IQ.
The only other factors which count are the economic system and the presence or absence of fortuitous natural resources.
Herein lies the explanation for the discrepant GDP's one sees around the world.
Anon.
Anon,
Moldavia's GNP per capita is LOWER THAN SOMALIA. La Griffe's formula is too clean and elegant for our muddy world.
I suspect in the case of Moldova that the statistics are not reliable - probably some large portion of economic activity occurs "off the books" in the black market and is not reflected in statistics. Moldova is obviously a poor country today but it's hard to say that it is really poorer than Somalia.
The "smarter fraction" thing makes a lot of sense - we know the Jews of Hungary formed only a small % of the population but were a large % of the industrialists, bankers, etc. One Pick Jeno provided jobs for hundreds of less intelligent men. We see that in S. Africa they were able to maintain a relatively advanced economy with only a small group of more intelligent whites and we see in Rhodesia what happens when that small fraction of the population leaves.
As for the people of the Ukraine being impoverished, I hope this curse continues for seven generations, at least. When the Germans came, the Ukrainians in my mother's shtetl were their most enthusiastic collaborators and did not even need German prompting to attack and kill Jews - they were glad to undertake this task on their own initiative. All to a much greater extent than the Poles and the Poles were no slouches in the anti-Semitism department, but the Ukrainians were in a whole different league. The Germans were generally too civilized and squeemish to carry out the most bloody tasks in the camps personally but they recruited Ukrainian/ Ruthenian guards who positively enjoyed their jobs of killing Jews and carried out their bloody tasks with enthusiasm. When the Russians returned, they rooted out some of the most hardened collaborators and dealt with them in good Stalinist fashion but I'm sure they missed many.
K
My father shared your sentiments regarding Hungarians, and my wife for Ukranians. I had less personal contact with East European antisemitism, so for me it is more an intellectual than emotional issue. Regarding the Moldavian paradox, they have received intact the beautiful city of Kishinev, as well as many houses and roads built by the Jews and the German settlers. I have the impression that they have added nothing. The population are subsistance peasants, their produce is unmarketable in Europe, worth nothing. Maybe half of the working population has emigrated. It is very poor.
Moldova is so poor that a small minority of its women have been sold on the international sex slave market.
Maybe they yearn for communism, or are culturally defective in some way.
In fact, I have been reading the wiki article on Moldova, and according to it the Soviets allocated one billion rubles to develop Moldova. Also, until 2009 the Communist Party of Moldova held a majority of seats in the 101-seat parliament. Only in 2009 did all of the other significant parties band together in a unified opposition. Even now though the CPM holds 48 of 101 seats in the parliament. Prior to the political change Moldova was one of just three countries that had an elected communist government.
According to the 2004 census there were 3,608 Jews in Moldova and an additional 1,259 in the breakaway territory of Transnistria.
What is the average IQ of Moldova?
Anon.
It is similar to Romania.
The dark underbelly of Europe.
Anon.
Moldova=95-96
Regarding adding nothing, a few years ago, my uncle went to see my family's shtetl, not far from Lemberg (Lvov/Lviv). In his time there had been a paved road into town. Now somehow it was gone (the road was not capable of carrying the weight of Russian tanks - when they rolled into town the paving blocks were disturbed and never fixed) and there was only dirt. The Ukrainian peasants wore mud splattered clothes and rode in horse drawn wagons. My family's house and mill still stood - nothing new had been built. Before the war, the Jews were the merchants and the Poles were the administrators and landowners. My grandfather (himself a heavy smoker) had the local franchise for the state tobacco monopoly and their parlor was an informal smoking salon - people would smoke and play chess and read the newspaper and argue politics. Jews and Poles, merchants and school teachers and police officers - the "smarter fraction" personified. Now all that was left were the ignorant peasants who knew only subsistence farming.
PS although of course all the family assets were lost, my uncle became a multi-millionaire in America. Even in the Soviet Union where they were exiled, within a short time he soon worked himself into a top position in the management of the kolkhoz - he was that kind of guy.
K
Search for documents. You may receive back your family's property. Hungarian Jews received back factories and lands, the catch was that you had to operate the mill/factory/farm personally.
I have no desire to return to a God forsaken village and operate a small flour mill that is 70 years out of date. My mother always mourned the loss of the property but the truth is they regained more in America than they ever had in Poland (now Ukraine). Only Palestinians obsess about lost olive groves - it's long past time to move on.
K
I am sure the local government must be confused by your refusal to accept their generous offer. Full of Christian repentance, they are ready to return you all your property, a valuable flour mill, houses, everything, and to have you living in their village, and you say thanks no, I have moved on. Jews are so ungrateful, they must be thinking.
I'm not so sure they are even offering. I think the locals were quite happy to move into Jewish homes, take over Jewish businesses, etc. I think this is true everywhere - if my black cleaning lady could somehow come to occupy my house, I'm sure she wouldn't refuse.
After 50 years of Soviet rule, there wasn't much Christianity left - a few old ladies in babushka's lighting candles in church.
I'm sure whatever I would do (accept or not accept this hypothetical offer) would be twisted and misunderstood by the locals - one of the specialties of the Jewish/Goyish interaction was the 2 cultures not understanding each other. In Canada (another bi-lingual/bi-cultural country) this is called the "Two Solitudes" - two cultures living side by side but not really "getting" each other. I should add that this ran in both directions - my parents only had the vaguest (and often totally distorted) knowledge of many aspects of Christian life and culture, especially religious matters.
K
I am not sure your parents had a distorted picture of their neighbors. They lived among them, they traded with them, they read their books.
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